Head of Academic Jihad: The trend of elite migration has reached the level of migration of knowledge-based companies

The head of the Academic Jihad warned on Monday, July 17, that due to the production of technologies that have no customers in Iran, the trend of emigration of academic elites has also reached the emigration of knowledge-based companies.

According to IRNA, Ruhollah Dehghani Firouzabadi criticized the growing trend of elite migration, saying: "This practice, in the shadow of the support given to knowledge-based companies in other countries, especially neighboring and Arab countries, and due to the negligence of the authorities, has led to the mass migration of elites in the form of knowledge-based companies."

Mr. Dehghani called the prerequisite for the activity of knowledge-based companies "the definition of the value and wealth production cycle" and said: "Some, without paying attention to the path of the value and wealth production chain in society, say that the number of knowledge-based companies should increase."

The increase in knowledge-based companies in recent years has occurred with the repeated recommendations of the Leader of the Islamic Republic and the approval of supportive laws and regulations by the parliament and the government, such that their number has increased from about 4,600 companies in 2019 to about seven thousand this year.

The head of the Academic Jihad described the most important challenge facing these companies as "the failure to connect technologies in Iran with innovation," and said: "With the increase in knowledge-based companies, we will only see an increase in technologies that have not been transformed into innovations or ready-to-use products and are not sold."

According to the academic official, if the value chain puzzle is not fully addressed, "we will face other forms of migration and, of course, disaster."

The phenomenon of migration of "real" knowledge-based companies has taken shape while the Iranian Tax Affairs Organization had recently reported on the "craze" of companies to introduce themselves as knowledge-based in order to take advantage of tax exemptions.

Saeed Totunchi, Deputy Director of the Tax Affairs Organization, also said on Monday, July 4, referring to companies unrelated to knowledge-based production that are included in this category: "We were faced with a case where a Gaz producer in Isfahan had disguised itself as a knowledge-based company."

According to Article 3 of the Law on the Protection of Knowledge-Based Companies, which was passed by the parliament in 2010, these companies are exempt from paying taxes, duties, customs duties, commercial profits, and export duties for fifteen years.

In addition, according to Article 11 of the Knowledge-Based Production Leap Law, which came into effect in May 2022 after being approved by the parliament, the equivalent of the cost incurred for research and development activities of these companies is calculated as their tax credit.

The head of the Academic Jihad also referred to the issue of unreal knowledge-based companies in his critical statements, saying: "Currently, our country is filled with nominal and non-nominal knowledge-based companies."

The laws supporting knowledge-based companies have been approved following repeated recommendations from Ali Khamenei, the Leader of the Islamic Republic, regarding knowledge-based activities and companies.

Mr. Dehghani, the newly appointed head of the Academic Jihad, in another part of his speech, referring to the special facilities that some countries, including the Emirates and Turkey, provide to technologists, added, "The fact that a knowledge-based company is now migrating to Turkey or the Emirates is very concerning, because it may encourage other knowledge-based companies to migrate."

The university official cited the production of technologies that have no customers in Iran as the reason for this problem, adding that until the "empty house of connecting technology to innovation" is filled, "if we press for the increase and development of knowledge-based companies, we will actually be pouring grist into the enemy's mill."

According to statistics published by the Khabar Online website in Ordibehesht this year, based on a review of the Islamic Republic's Passport Office statistics from 2002 to August 2020, Iran ranked 19th in "sending students" to other countries, and the population of Iranian immigrants has doubled over the last thirty years.

Source: Raziv Farda